1. O Canada was written originally as an anthem for which society?

2. Who composed the music to O Canada?

3. What contribution was made by Robert Stanley Weir?

4. When was O Canada adopted officially as the national anthem? (I'll give five years' grace on either side.)

5. What two new phrases were included in the official English version?

6. How was Tokyo significant in 1964 to the history of O Canada?

7. What former rival to O Canada is kept in circulation by a hockey team?

8. Which singer with a captive audience in Montreal changed the anthem in the late 1970s?

Answers to IQuiz

1. O Canada had its first public performance in Quebec City on June 24, 1880, possibly during a morning mass on the Plains of Abraham, more likely during an evening party with the governor- general in attendance. Either way, the patriotic song was composed for the Societe St. Jean Baptiste, which had long sought an anthem for French-Canadian use. It says something about the duality of things back then that the lyricist, Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier, was both president of the Societe St. Jean Baptiste and a founding member of the Royal Society of Canada.

2. The composer of O Canada was Calixa Lavallee, one of the great musical pioneers of Quebec, although he was forced to divide his career between Montreal and the U.S. Accounts differ, but the consensus is that Lavallee wrote the music first. A commentator on an early performance claimed to recognize in it "the composer of the Cantata to Princess Louise." No other works by Lavallee have claimed a place in the repertoire, although his piano etude Le Papillon once enjoyed salon popularity.

3. Robert Stanley Weir was the Hamilton-born Montrealer who supplied the lasting English words to the anthem in 1908. The first performance in English Canada of the tune, with a literal translation of the Routhier text, was in 1901 in Toronto during a visit of the Duke of Cornwall and York (the future George V). A competition in 1909 produced new words by Mercy E. Powell McCulloch ("In praise of thee we sing"), but Weir's poem prevailed.

4. Strange to say, O Canada has been official only since July 1, 1980 - a little more than a century after its composition. It was approved but not legislated as the national anthem by Parliament in 1967, on which occasion God Save the Queen was given separate status as the "royal anthem."

5. In order to alleviate some of the repetitions of the original Weir, "And stand on guard" became "From far and wide," while the penultimate "O Canada" became "God keep our land." The changes originated with the 1967 committee but remained unheard until 1980.

6. Tokyo saw the first Olympic use of O Canada during an awards ceremony to honour the gold medals of Roger Jackson and George Hungerford. Bear in mind that the flag on that occasion was still the Red Ensign. There were no Canadian gold medals in Rome in 1960.

7. O Canada once had formidable competition from The Maple Leaf Forever, with words and music by Torontonian Alexander Muir, first published together in 1868. "In days of yore, from Britain's shore" runs the opening line - a fair indication of its potential for popularity in French Canada. A text by Octave Cremazie, father of French-Canadian poetry, was tried in 1914, but O Canada prevailed in both languages. The Maple Leaf Forever survives as the signature tune of the Toronto Maple Leafs.